Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Why are we humans so afraid of death?. There are numerous reasons why we are some of them that come to mind are:

1.] The fear of torture in hell2.] Ceasing to be nothing after death3.] Fear of leaving all living loved ones alone4.] It being painful

Those seem to be the obvious ones, i for one no longer fear death as much as i used too. However i do still fear it to an extent based on the fact that nothing is certain. I for one am leading to two possible scenarios that seem more probable now then they did before. That is when i used to think death was the end of my consciousness. Those two scenarios are

1. Super ESP- an infinite amount of information in the universe that mediums just tap into and then becomes no evidence that mediums are communicating with souls from the otherside.

2. Some kind of an afterlife- This one seems more probable based on all of the available evidence we have. In the end, it all comes down to a matter of choice will you be someone who believes that death is the end of personality, memories etc?. Or someone who believes all of the evidence for life after death can be explained by a super ESP theory?. Last but not least believe that the evidence that is opposed to the current view of science point towards life after death. If we all knew for certain that their is an afterlife tommorrow i am sure it wouldn't necessarily be a good thing. Because people would want to commit suicide just to be with their loved ones on the otherside.

Monday, December 28, 2009

1. A Nintendo wii system with wii sports and a nunchuck and wii remote along with batteries. 2. A second wii remote 3. A second nunchuck4. A wii charger system5. Batman and Robin Lego game for wii6. Smackdown v.s raw 2009 game for wii7. Celebrity Bash game for wii8. Tmnt smash up game for wii9. Acdc live game for wii10. Wwe wrestling calendar11. Winter gloves and winter hat12. Pants and a shirt13. Socks and underwear14. Lotto tickets15. Necklace16. Slippers

Thursday, December 24, 2009

I like to wish all of the readers reading this blog a very merry christmas and a happy new year. May you all enjoy the holiday season.

A little side note: I watched the lastest skeptiko podcast where scientist Michael Persinger was on. He mentioned how scientists must test for the supposed theory that the brain generates consciousness and the mind. I would say to he is wrong on this point we need to test for both theories [ Brain generates consciousness, mind], Brain receives or is a transceiver consciousness and mind].

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Thursday, November 12, 2009

This is easy to answer, it's because it's always classified to be under the heading of "paranormal" where quantum mechanics is not. One skeptic was mentioning how even skeptics of the paranormal accepted wacky strange ideas from quantum mechanics such as multiple universes, quantum entanglement etc. However acceptance of those ideas are mainly in physics themselves and not surprisingly if this skeptic did his homework he would find that a lot of quantum physicists accept the overwhelming evidence for psi phenomena. As far as other fields of science go with their thinking on ideas such as multiple universes, quantum entanglement go i can say that biologists, neuroscientists etc don't really understand the implications of such ideas themselves. The relationship psi has with quantum mechanics their are many.

1] Both have replicated experimental evidence [ though psi evidence is always slashed by extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This is a cop-out because their is nothing better than the scientific method to get at the truth.

2]. Both have yes wanky ideas that appear to be true.

3] Quantum Mechanics theories appear to have all come true the same that seems to be happening with numerous psi phenomena.

It is typically claimed by skeptics that governmens and universities wasted millions of dollars on psi and found nothing. That is completely not true, for example PEAR founder Dr Robert Jahn:

For 28 years, we've done what we wanted to do, and there's no reason to stay and generate more of the same data. If people don't believe us after all the results we've produced, then they never will... It's time for a new era; for someone to figure out what the implications of our results are for human culture, for future study, and - if the findings are correct - what they say about our basic scientific attitude.

Duke University's parapsychology lab closed down decades ago, but not because of a lack of results. Joseph Rhine moved DU's parapsychology lab off-campus, and continues to this day as the Rhine Research Centre. Rhine's research reported positive results. Stanford University's interest in parapsychology was disrupted when the Stanford Research Institute separated from the University and became SRI International. SRI International was the nursery for the Stargate remote viewing project, of which statistician Jessica Utts concluded: "Using the standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that psychic functioning has been well-established. The statistical results of the studies examined are far beyond what is expected by chance...there is little benefit to continuing experiments designed to offer proof, since there is little more to be offered to anyone who does not accept the current collection of data."

So you can see the skeptics are wrong here governments and universities have found very strong replicable evidence for psi.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Of course dualism is testable and also falsifiable. The evidence that supports dualism in the form of substance dualism is very very strong, it's hard to see how educated professionals can go on denying the obvious facts. This is what this blog is all about letting the general public along with scientists that their is overwhelming data for survival of bodily death and psi phenomena.

Keith Augustine's theory that near death experiences that just hallucinations brought on by a dying brain. Has many problems for example how does he theory account for people who blind in life can see when experiencing an out of body experience?. Also people born deaf can hear again when having an out of body experience as well. Also the physiology of the brain completely works against his theory based on the fact that the cortex of the brain is no longer active in a lot of these cases. For his case to work he would have to show that lower cortical processes in the brain can somehow take over the function of higher ones in cardiac arrest. However that has never happened. Yes their is no doubt their is undetected brain activity that can't be picked up by EEG however those have been discovered in deeper areas of the brain that are not of that of the cortex.

I am happy to say that i know some people have found some very good information on this blog of mine. So i will definitely continue this blog. Their has been a lot of things lately happening in my life, such as i went for an interview to get on a job program. Today i took a CAAT test to test my IQ. It was very fun to do.

If i get the job program it looks like i will indeed be much better off than i am now. Which is a very good thing for sure. I have lately been think a lot about the h1n1 vaccine and this shortage problem well i know i will definitely be getting the shot as well as the seasonal flu shot. Starting too see how of the christmas commericals on tv lately it is wonderful. I love christmas time it's my favorite holiday.

We only know of cognition when there is a functioning brain present, we have seen no cognition where a brain was not present. That is, we have never observed mind without brain.

Leo- I disagree experiments in the cross correspondences for example clearly show mediums can obtain information from the otherside. Also other survival evidence clearly show that the mind can exist independent from the physical brain.

- Animals with more evolved, more complex brains always exhibit more intelligence and emotions than those with less evolved, less complex brains.

Leo- Yes a more advanced tv will take in the channels better too.

- Interventions in very specific parts of the brain result in very specific changes in cognitive function.

Leo- Ok yes just like changes in my tv will cause changes in my reception

- Mental illness has a strong genetic component.

Leo- Yes but this doesn't show that mind is produced by the brain

- We are learning to read brain activity and make sense of it in terms of emotions and thoughts.

Leo- Yes we are but that doesn't tell us if the brain is a producer of consciousness or the receiver of consciousness.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Commonly Parapsychology and Psychical Research are called pseudoscience because of the phenomena they deal with. For example Parapsychology deals mainly with psi phenomena, sometimes life after death phenomena too. Where Psychical Research main focus is the survival question do we survive?. The claim made by many skeptics is that the evidence for survival and psi are not. Psi phenomena for example is verifiable and repeatable and has been shown to exist for over a century now. Even Richard Wiseman admits this but says that even though the scientific method shows it exists, that we should have a higher standard of evidence for it. This obviously is a cop out based on the fact that the scientific method is the best method we have of testing things.

Read this forum post for a good example of what closed mindeness means.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Well we don't mean a materialist in the way of material goods such as money. What we mean is the view that all of reality is material and that their is nothing beyond the material reality we are in. A lot of materialists lately use the new scientist article " Creationists declare war on the brain", as a factual report on how dualists are similiar to creationists in the way they devise arguments. This of course is completely false, that is like saying an orange is similiar to an apple. The difference is that their is overwhelming evidence that supports dualism where creationism relies on the bible, a book that is based on faith. Typically materialists say we the mind is separate from the brain along with consciousness then whatever scientist proved that would get a nobel prize. How ironic is that but when a dualist points out the fact that a appeal of authority for example the majority of neuroscientists believe mind is a process of the brain doesn't mean it's true.

This of course, strikes a nerve at the materialist. But it doesn't end there no the materialist claims their is verifiable repeatable evidence that mind is a process of the brain that we had this evidence for over 50 years. Of course if we really did have this evidence then the case would be closed. There would be no hard problem of consciousness.

Monday, October 5, 2009

There are three options when it comes the survival hypothesis that could be true. Of course for us to survive death we would need self awareness along with the astral body. If we just had the astral body that is similiar but slightly different than the physical body then it would be just a zombie without self awareness. That is what makes us who we are. Also if only self-awareness survive death but no astral body then their is endless reincarnation. But if both remain intact once we die then an afterlife plus the possibility of reincarnation as well would be factual. To me after looking at all of the evidence that supports the survival hypothesis i would have to go with self awareness+astral body both remain intact after biological death of the physical body.

Here is a list of some of the phenomena that appear to point towards one or more of the options above.

Reincarnation evidence [Ian Stevenson's 21 best cases]- Indicative of self awareness surviving death but not indicative of an astral body also surviving

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Many philosophers along with scientists would concede so. That any alternatives to naturalism must be avoided. That would include idealism along with dualism. It is true in nature all we see is natural phenomena, even though naturalism has succeeded in many frontiers. It runs a road block when it comes to consciousness itself and the nature of reality. The fact is dualism can explain all of the successes that naturalism can because dualism implies both natural phenomena and paranormal phenomena. Of course, if you concede that consciousness is just an illusion generated by the brain along with free will, and that no paranormal phenomena exist, then just monism[naturalism] is correct. One of the big reasons why most scientists are naturalists is because of the fear of god or religion is one of the best reasons for believing naturalism is right.

Of course, that reasoning is an appeal to fear than it is of following the evidence wherever that may leads us. When i say a fear of religion i don't mean a fear of going to church. What i mean is a fear of being associated with anything that sounds religious such as ghosts, poltergeists, mental mediumship etc. Of course, while mainstream scientists who the majority are naturalists feel no need to be associated with anything that sounds religious. Some mainstream scientists such as William James along with other scientists gathered an enormous amount repeatable scientific evidence that support the survival hypothesis. This is of course not what these psychical researchers ever imagine would happen. They wanted to show that all psychics were frauds, cold readers etc. I will say however there are some naturalist's are are openfully honest about their position [Searle, Lycan, Nagel along with a few others].

Monday, September 28, 2009

Well over the past few days i downloaded mugen, this is a game where you can install tons and tons of characters. You can play the game on your own desktop and yes the game is 100 percent free to install. So are the characters, stages etc. My roster of characters so far is pretty good.

Rather you like it or not their is strong evidence that nde’s are evidence for an afterlife. Let me explain why, yes their is deep level brain activity in deep levels of the brain. However, EEG can read the cortex of the brain and when flat lined people still have nde’s and obe’s. The flat line EEG indicates their is very little brain activity left in the cortex when blood flow is cut to the brain when someone goes into cardiac arrest. Jason Braithwaite said that those deep lower processes of the brain is more than sufficent to account for near death experiences. However it order for his theory to work. Their would have to be evidence that stimulating those processes of the brain when someone is flat lined can bring about complex though processes etc that are reported in nde’s.

I quote

“By late 2008 an advertisement for a previously unknown public appearance by Gage had been discovered, as well as a report of his physical and mental condition during his time in Chile, and a description of what may well have been his daily work routine there as a long-distance coach driver. This new information suggests that the seriously maladapted Gage described by Harlow may have existed for only a limited time after the accident—that Phineas eventually “figured out how to live” despite his injury,[40] and was in later life much more functional, and socially much better adapted, than has been thought”.[41]

So as we see that his personality back, however their is good reasons to doubt Harlows account.

I quote

“The uncertainty of Harlow’s sources for the changes he describes in Gage, combined with the fact that he waited almost twenty years (between his first and second papers) to communicate those changes, constitute one of the main puzzles of the case.”

So as we still it is looking more and more less likely that he suffered dramatic personality change to the point of showing evidence for full blown mind-brain dependency. This case is often cited by full blown support for very strong mind-brain dependency. But as i have shown it’s no where near supportive of it.

As far as free will goes ok go away deny the all so obvious. How do you explain why a person’s arm goes up. Now you can say well that is the thing with the arm sometimes it goes up and sometimes it doesn’t. But the fact is it does.

The chinese room argument, put forth by philosopher John Searle, is a powerful argument that shows why computationalism is wrong. The many world’s interpretation if correct would show that quantum immortality is possible that when a person dies. Consciousness continues on to another parellel universe.

Hello Shamelessly Atheist,

The Phineas Gage case yes their was significant personality changes however that is not incompatiable with dualism. Based on the fact that the issue is the brain producing mind and consciousness like a productive function? or is the brain a receiver of the mind.?

As far as the split brain experiments go they no where near demonstrates their are two separate conscious selves.

http://www.geocities.com/athanasiafoundation/Dualismlives.htm

There are a lot of powerful arguments that the view that materialism is wrong .

http://www.geocities.com/athanasiafoundation/metasubjectivemind.html

Phineas Gage lost his personality permanently?. It looks that is not the case, because of the fact that he was more functional and social shortly after his accident.

“The strange case of Phineas Gage,” History of the Human Sciences

http://hhs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/20/1/115

After his death, Gage slowly morphed into the lecture room legend. According to Kotowicz,

” Most of the subsequent descriptions of Gage were based on hearsay. Some of them were quite florid; Gage was portrayed as having fits of temper when not getting his own way, as being disinclined to work, as having a reduced libido, as being an aimless drifter and so on. A typical description of him would say that before the accident Gage had been a diligent, reliable, polite and socially adept person: after his accident, he subsequently became uncaring, profane and socially inappropriate in his conduct”.

In neurophilosophy we learn this http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/12/04/the-incredible-case-of-phineas-gage/

The Documentary Evidence

Kotowicz begs to differ:

However, after examining closely the accounts of Phineas Gage as given by the doctors who knew him, Harlow and Bigelow, one must conclude that the supposed psychopathic traits are not evident.

The drastic discontinuity was not so much between Phineas Gage pre- and post-tamping rod but between Phineas Gage (1823-1860) and the lecture room legend.

What we can learn from contemporary accounts of Gage’s post-trauma life is this: For a while after the accident, he drifted, and even ended up briefly in P. T. Barnum’s freak show, exhibiting himself and the tamping rod. But he then settled down and worked a year and a half in a stable. Later, he went with a friend to Valparaiso in Chile where he cared for horses and drove a coach and six for eight years.

Kotowicz points out the obvious,

Working in stables is not a job for a psychopath. Horses are very sensitive and they require discipline and calm; they have to be attended to regularly, seven days a week, and work begins early.

Malcolm Macmillan of Deakin University School of Psychology in Victoria, Australia, where he maintains a Phineas Gage page. He writes:

Most of the accounts of Gage’s life after 1848 are strange mixtures of slight fact, considerable fancy, and downright fabrication.

Now contrasts all of the above information to this materialist account of Phineas Gage’s personality.

As far as i know and yes i read lots of articles, and go to skeptical sites to, neuroscientists haven't been able to induce key aspects of obe's. Instead what the people who had a part of their brain electrically stimulated reported distortions of their body from above [such as their legs becoming shorter, and arms becoming shorter. If you compared nde cases brought on by cardiac arrest with induced ndes you see their are big differences. Yes in some cases that is possible that details can be added but not by patients who were interviewed shortly after being unconscious.

Also what is your opinion on Richard Wiseman's statement that ESP has been proven by the scientific method but requires a higher level of evidence. Denial there for sure, nowhere does he mentions what his higher level of evidence would be?. The scientific method is the best method we have at getting at the truth.

As far as the science of violation goes. The only thing that can be demonstrated by this type of evidence is that there is some brain mechanism involved to facilitate consciousness during our incarnated existence. This does not at all mean the contents of consciousness are themselves caused by the brain mechanism. In other words, the evidence can be perfectly interpreted in terms of the transmitter-receiver hypothesis.

Brain scanners can see your decisions before to make them

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/mind_decision

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/18/BANFRK1TG.DTL< [One of the main responses seems to me that there is an interaction of brain and mind, so that the role of the brain does not exclude a separate role of the mind[.

Here is a good paper by Titus Rivas and Hein Van Dongen showing why epiphenomenalism is untenable.

http://www.geocities.com/athanasiafoundation/epiphenomenalism.html

Also, other cases of brain damage to the frontal lobes of the brain are similiar to the case of Phineas Gage above. Their is no doubt that his personality was probably changed a lot however not so dramatically changed that it is evidence that the mind and brain are so linked that their is no way that personality could survive death.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Especially rocky 3 and 4 where Rocky Balboas went up against Clubber Lang in rocky 3 and in rocky 4 went up against Ivan Drago. I enjoy all of the rocky movies though but those two are my favorite ones out of the other four rocky movies that came out. There are many things i like about all of the rocky movies from 1 to 6 and that is they inspire me and i am sure i ain't just that i am, i know many others were probably inspire by them too. The message is never give up, when your training in the gym give it all you got. Determination is the major thing that you need obviously in order to stay in the gym busting your ass off.

Music that i enjoy from rocky movies that give me strength and tell me to never give up.

- The Burning Heart- Hearts on Fire- Eye of the Tiger- The Measure of a Man- No easy way out- It's a Fight

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Some believe free will is real while others believe it's just a illusion. A powerful illusion that we strongly believe we have but we don't. While i strongly disagree, it's very evident that we have free will to some degree anyways. One such example that we have some free will is the fact that are arms go up when we get out of bed in the morning. You can say well that is the thing with the old arm sometimes it goes up and someones it doesn't. But the fact remains the arms go up. For a epiphenomenalism to work it has to show why a simple observation of the arm moving up and down is just an illusion. Of course free will conflicts with the current scientific worldview which is naturalism.

On a off-topic note on my father: He is doing good, my mom had to go to the Halifax hospital to see my father. The doctors there are running tests on his heart to see if another blood clot form in his heart.

If you haven't already heard actor Patrick Swayze has died from cancer at the age of 57 years old . Without a doubt he will be missed, for lots of things. We will all miss you Patrick. Thanks for the good times, we will see you again.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Not good news, this morning my Mom got a phone call from the hospital. My father had small heart attacks , now they have him hooked up to a machine giving him morphine. My mom was in tears and so am i , were both depressed. Our big concern now is a lot of the time well small heart attacks can lead to a big heart attack. My sister came down this morning saying he may need a pacemaker. Also our cat Mancub took another seizure this morning, he didn't have one for 40 days. Very sad right now, and angry as well, at the doctor who gave him a lot of medication. Which i think probably cause his small heart attacks. Also a part of his heart is now weaker obviously after the small heart attacks. Damn, i never really believed in miracles before but me and my family really need a big one now.

If anyone sees this post, please pray for my family right now. We can sure use it.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

First, my brother Roddy's and his wife Tanya's truck was stolen. Tanya forgot her truck keys and left them in the truck, after a long day of work. He also left 20 dollars in her wallet in the car along with all of her cards. The police found their truck and it was inbounded. He does have insurance on his vehicle which is good news. Second, my brother Tommy and his girlfriend Becky got the bad news that they won't get custody of Skyler and Trinity. The case worker taking of this case of child abuse. His past girlfriend Melissa abused the kids, and is now out of town afraid probably of charges that will be layed on her. The case worker had the nerve to say that my brother was selfish, that he thought of himself before the kids. Which is not true at all.

Third, this is what happened, me and my mom we went to the library. Tommy and Becky took my father for a drive, Tommy and Becky with my father got back before we did, he went to go the bedroom didn't make it. He fell on the floor near the mircowave. We got home my mom saw him their on the floor he had a couple of bruises on him from landing. My Mom got my brother Tommy to take him to the hospital so they went away to the hospital. My mom said when she got home that they did a bunch of tests on him in the emergency room. As far as the doctors know based on the tests he has very low blood pressure. They think it's because of him being on three different medications for his blood pressure. When he's sleeping his blood pressure is normal but as soon as he gets up it drops a lot. So the doctors are keeping him in to closely monitor his blood pressure. He should be out in a few days. This happened yesterday.

My Mom and my sister are going over to the hospital, they only allow two vistors to see the patient at one time. They they are going to be seeing my father this afternoon. My poor mom and i too found it hard to sleep last night no wonder after all of the bad luck we have had as of late.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Now 8 years since the 9-11 attacks we will never forget the pain, horror and tragedy that struck on that day. Neither will we forget all of the firefighters who risked their lives to try to save all of the incident victims. We shall never forget our of the ones who lost their lives and the pain that their families and that that everyone else experienced on that day.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

So what is the problem with his view?. I will explain, first he mentions that quite recently doctors have found some deep level brain activity in persistent vegetative patients and in deep coma's. This is no surprise and it's likely their probably is high level brain activity in the non cortical processes of the brain. However those non cortical processes with high brain activity don't bring about thoughts, memories etc. It usually is assumed to be the cortical regions of the brain which have been shown by a flat EEG to have very little activity there. There no doubt there is a little bit of activity in the cortex but that would no where near account for high complex thought processes, and memories that occur in near death experiences. So for Jason's Braithwaite view to work, their would have to be evidence showing that stimulating deep level non cortical processes of the brain take over high level functions of the brain,and explain high level thought processes. But here is the catch, according to neuropsychology that is very improbable. This is why Pim Van Lommel concluded that his study supports the survival hypothesis because of the observations that it didn't fit into a brain based model.

Jason Braithwaite says and i quote

"He cites evidence that inter-ictal discharges in the hippocampus or amygdala alone are more than sufficient to produce complex meaningful hallucinations - no involvement from the cortex is necessary.

My Response: But here is the catch, those patients report distortion in their bodies legs becoming shorter, not seeing their body down below etc. This is the opposite of what patients with out of body experiences report.

I challenge all skeptics that are skeptical that near death experiences and out of body experiences provide supporting evidence for life after death. For them to show any problems with my reasoning above.

It now looks like Arthur Ford was indeed a fraud, before his death he wrote this article. http://www.survivalafterdeath.org.uk/articles/ford/houdini.htm

Now to the reason why i think he is now a fraud. It's because Keith Augustine presented to me some information from wikipedia.

I quote

Ford's Hidden Archives

"After Arthur Ford's death, Ford's close friend and supporter William V. Rauscher and author Allen Spraggrett discovered Ford's collection of obituaries, newspaper clippings, Who's Who articles, etc. that Ford had hidden away. They were disguised as bound poetry books. Ford read his poetry before giving a reading. There was enough information to indicate that much of the famous Pike messages and others were fraudulent.[citation needed] There were many other things that Ford ordered his secretary to burn that are lost. Ford and his secretary parted company due to a falling out. Ford's secretary claimed Ford had no psychic abilities. The book Arthur Ford: The Man Who Talked with the Dead by Allen Spraggett with William V. Rauscher, New American Library, Inc.,1973 gives the whole story and is the primary source used in Alcock's book".

Also his is a good blogpost created by Michael Prescott who discusses Arthur Ford.

However, their are at least one incident where it appears he had legitimate psychic abilites.

Go here to read this incident which appears to strongly suggest he had legitimate psychic abilties some of the time. http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael_prescotts_blog/2006/11/heres_an_intere.html

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Materialists point out like we dualists already know that mind is radically affected by the effects of brain damage, drugs etc. Mind is information based so it's no surprise it's affected by these affects. This mind is connected to consciousness[subjective qualia]. This is the soul the essence of a person that is similiar to the physical body but slightly different. This is my take on things when it comes to the mind body problem. Of course i know many philosophers and neuroscientists would disagree. Just want to point out how i describe consciousness and the mind this appears to fit very well with the known facts from what we know in neuroscience. Except, of course for the last part that their is a immaterial soul that is connected to the mind and the brain. The evidence from the cross correspondences, book tests, drop in communicators among many other lines of evidence strongly points too not just that consciousness[soul] survives death but also the information[mind] continues as well.

Of course, i could be wrong about all of this. Perhaps all of the evidence that points strongly that we survive along with all other species is all just fraud, delusion, unconscious fraud etc. Perhaps but after many decades of extensive research done by many psychical research it sures look unlikely.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Apparently from what i read through the internet James Randi famed debunker of paranormal claims has intestinal cancer. Even though i disagree strongly with his views on the evidence for psi phenomena and survival of bodily death. That his challenge has many problems. My best wishes go out to James Randi and his family . It doesn't look good for him according to doctors he has a 50/50 prognosis for the next 5 years.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Sebastin: This book was increasingly being presented, in woo woo land, as a sort of upcoming revolution in the humdrum universe of sheepishly mainstream psychologists and neuroscientists (who are mainly materialists by default, obviously not realizing the inconsistencies of such an obsolete position, stupid as they are). You see, mainstream scientists (i.e. not crackpots) have failed to provide evidence that the brain is at all involved in the production of consciousness and mental states. What IM shows however, through more than 800 pages of marshalling irrefutable evidence, is that the brain merely transmits consciousness. Or filters it (whatever that means). So there is a conflict, you see, a controversy between the productive theory, and the transmissive theory of mind-brain relationships. Isn't that great? Every side of the debate has something to bring to the table, and boy, do scientists love a cool controversy to resolve!

Leo: Here he says he has no idea what the transmission theory is. This is coming from someone who appears to know a lot about parapsychology but never came across the two objections to immortality by William James. How convenient is that?.

Sebastin: Well, that's the message, folks, there's nothing else in there. The authors of IM are simply deep into the explanatory gap, up to their neck, and they have no idea of how to get out. Nor do they really want to, of course, for it really feels good down there, it's all cozy and warm, bathing in your own tedious imaginary world, full of ignorance and smugness, without actually accomplishing anything of value in the real world. Mental causation, yeah, that's the problem we're told, that's the real issue. You cannot explain it without woo, and, well, you cannot explain woo without more woo. That's all there is in the book, and it can be formalized as follows:

Leo: You should read two supposed objectives to the doctrine of immortality by William James to find out what the theory entails. Also their mention about the transmission theory here by Michael Grosso

Then he mentions how the transmission theory is implausible because it violates Occams Razor, which is a cop out because that objection can be used against the many world interpretation too well we thought so but many physicists believe they have found strong evidence for parellel universes. So it clearly is a cop out, because Occam's Razor isn't really about how complex the theory is, but if the data support the theory or not.

Another commenter Keith mentions

At the most basic level, though, the issue isn't an issue of mere simplicity, at least in the sense of saying production only postulates a brain, whereas transmission postulates a brain and immaterial mind, and so is less simple (i.e., two things are less simple than one). It's not simply that the immaterial soul is an unnecessarily entity, like the car engine demon, that one needn't invoke to explain how minds or cars work. It's that the immaterial soul couldn't even explain how minds work even if we did postulate it.

Leo: I disagree that is what makes the transmission theory more plausible is that it can account for all of the data from all fields of research. If you think all research and experiments in parapsychology and psychical research is a absolute waste of time then the production theory looks more plausible.

Keith: Their solution is basically, yes, the brain does all of these things when alive, but perhaps "the soul" comes to use some other brain after death. As I said, you might as well postulate bodily resurrection at that point. The whole point of the soul hypothesis is to explain how it is that we have the minds that we know directly, here and now. When proponents give up on that and postulate some other kind of mind we might have postmortem, they are in essence conceding that the soul is not only unnecessary to explain our "embodied" minds but that it can't explain them even if we grant that there is such a thing. They are conceding that the brain in necessary for the minds we know about! What more is there to say at that point? Postulating some secondary brain that takes over what the "organic" brain has done all along is the equivalent, in my view, of postulating aliens that direct the behavior of the humans who make crop circles. Sure, it's logically possible, but it certainly isn't a very plausible view to hold.

Leo: We never said any such thing, we said that our in our physical world, the physical body and brain receives our mind. That is that the soul, is connected to the embodied mind and the brain. Really? isn't if dualism is right everything is dual in nature?. So why couldn't their be a double brain if their is a double body?. So what is a plausible view for us dualists who postulate a soul, breathe of life [vitalism]. Clearly that would not be much of a soul their at all. Neither would by saying the soul is just energy because who we are is clearly memories, personality etc. The only one i can think of is a double body that is almost a duplicate copy of a physical body, so yes it would have a etheric brain. The view that the soul is very similiar to the physical body but in a slightly different form is very consistent with the survival hypothesis. Where the view, that the soul is energy is not so consistent with the evidence we have to date, neither is the view that the soul is the breathe of life.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

There was a post made yesterday from Adamwho which is a member of the forum infidels forum. One of just arguments was that their is no organ in the brain that can receives signals from another person's brain. This is of course assuming that the brain isn't a receiver for the mind[information] itself. According to Adamwho their isn't, but no where in the post does he show why the brain can't be a complex receiver of the mind instead of the producer of the mind. If their is a soul which i see a ton of evidence that support it, it wouldn't be a jump to consider the possibility that the soul itself is the organ that decodes such EM signals in the brain.

Here's his post

http://www.freeratio.org/showthread.php?t=273617

Dr. Dean Radin mentions too in a youtube about the electromagnetic conditions and their affect on psi performance.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Physiology gives the indication that their is no soul, only mind and brain. This mind being a process of the brain. However, once you step outside conventional wisdom that their is no soul when it comes to neuroscience then you start to see that the conventional wisdom may not be correct. Evidence for survival of bodily death and psi phenomena indicate strongly, that the view that mind is a process of the brain ignores any evidence to the contrary. This is a easy way to avoid the possible conclusion itself.

It is said by a large number of neuroscientists that mind is a process of the brain and that evidence has been dramatically increases more and more as time goes on. Especially in the advent of fmri's. The problem is their is obviously more than one way to look at the evidence accumulated. The materialist will say that the theory that mind is filter, received by the brain instead of produced by the brain can be shaved off. That the view that mind is produced by the brain is simpler way of looking at the very strong correlations of mind and brain. True it's simpler, but does it account for all phenomena. A good theory should not just account for what it can account for but should be able to cover all well attested phenomena.

If you assume that psi phenomena and survival evidence doesn't exist or is very weak then it's easy of course to accept that mind is produced by the brain. However if you accept the evidence for survival and psi [which has been shown to exist by conventional scientific standards] then the theory that mind is filter and received by the brain is the simplest theory to take. Now when a materialist admits that yes psi phenomena has been shown to exist by scientific standards, they will a lot of the time fall back by saying well "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence'. This is a complete cop out because first of all what would create such extraordinary evidence. Replicated repeatable results yes? apparently not, it seems that this statement keeps the skeptics safe to the point of when their is very strong evidence for survival and psi they come up with this statement.

So are materialists really looking for the truth here?. I would say they could be, if they could gives us what they mean by extraordinary evidence. After many decades and centuries it seems as though its becoming very apparent what they mean by it. Its a way to ignore and avoid opposing data that doesn't fit into their materialistic worldview. So where is the soul? well i would say by looking at the evidence from survival that it's in the body. When death happens the soul leaves the physical body and takes a life of its own. The soul is a duplicate of the physical body but made of different kind of energy and matter.

For an examle of a skeptic admitting that remote viewing has been shown to exist by the scientific method.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I just watched the Orphan last night its a really good movie i give me probably 7 stars out of 10!!!. Just in case you don't know its a horror movie. I will say it is a great horror movie definitely worth watching.

Here is the trailer for the movie

Oh one more thing i need to talk about hurricane Bob. It is now a category 4 hurricane with max substained winds of 215 km/h. It looks like it will be a category 1 hurricane maybe category 2 hurricane when it comes to Nova Scotia. I am keeping my eyes on this hurricane.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

When a view fails to produce any evidence in it's favor we tend to look into another direction. This other direction would be Quantum Mechanics, for skeptics they see the meshing of consciousness and quantum physics as a non sequitor!. This is like saying well their is no reason whatsoever to look in quantum physics for the answer of consciousness, no let's keep looking at it from classical physics instead. A growing number of physicists, neuroscientists, and philosophers that consciousness could be a quantum mechanical phenomenon after all.

Their is a lot of talk that the brain is too warm to be performing quantum computations but that arguments appears to not to be true. However Hameroff refutes this argument put forth by Max Tegmark. He says that Tegmark's formula for the decoherence time includes a factor of the square root of T in the numerator, meaning that higher temperatures would lead to higher decoherence times. Tegmark's rejoinder keeps the factor of the square root of T for the decoherence time.

Here in New Glasgow we are getting some very hot weather today it got up to 34 degrees with the humidex being higher. This summer for me has been very lousy my poor father still is going through major depression. He has no car, so we haven't gone anywheres this summer. I am now saving money for christmas so i can buy presents for everyone.

Monday, August 10, 2009

I guess it depends on how you see this problem itself, for example their are many problems in the way memory relates to the brain itself. We as survivalists are apparently suppose to accept the so called hard truth that memories are somehow generated by the brain not filtered or received by the brain. No dualist denies that memory is related to the brain but where we differ from materialists is we see that memory could survive death after the brain is destroyed. Keith Augustine asks what would a survivalist consider proof of personal extinction after death?. First, the word proof their doesn't exist in science. Science deals with probability and evidence. With that said what evidence would convince a survivalist of personal extinction?. Well i'm sure if their was zero evidence for survival or very little of it then extinction would be more likely than not.

In my view that appears not to be the case. So why you may ask after researching and evaluating the evidence from both sides, why have i sided with survival?. Well the evidence looks to be consistent and overwhelming where the case against survival has many holes in it. But not just many holes either but the evidence used to support it can be interpreted to support survival.

Here are the 10 unsolved mysteries of the brain and mind

How is information coded in neural activity?How are memories stored and retrieved?What does the baseline activity in the brain represent?How do brains simulate the future?What are emotions?What is intelligence?How is time represented in the brain?Why do brains sleep and dream?How do the specialized systems of the brain integrate with one another?What is consciousness?

Friday, August 7, 2009

Here is another argument i have found recently being used against mind body dualism.

Well, do we have any proof there's such a thing as "immaterial sense organs"? How do they work exactly? For example, sound is the product of pressure oscillations in the air, so the immaterial body would need to have something that reacts to air pressure. But if it's immaterial, air doesn't exert pressure against anything, therefore an immaterial body can't possibly hear anything. Same argument can be made about sight and photons. So can you please explain the mechanisms of these immaterial sense organs?

Response: What we know is to communicate with spirits we do it through other people that are gifted we call them mediums. Not all mediums are genuine of course, many are frauds, deluded etc. However some have withstood the test of time such as Leonard Piper. That's not too say souls don't have immaterial sense organs but it's clear that need a medium another person to get their messages through to the grieving. Now what about out of body experiences and remote viewing evidence that shows that their probably is immaterial sense organs?. My view is that hearing, seeing all of these appear to be their the exact mechanisms of why this happens, is not time at this time. To hear sounds normally, we interact with sound waves. The immaterial soul would interact with these sound waves, remember when i say immaterial i am meaning it's subjective qualities not the entity itself. The entity itself is probably another kind of matter and energy. To a materialist their is no need of a immaterial soul to explain out of body experiences for example because of the fact that we hear sounds, see things etc, with our sensory organs interacting with physical processes. But the fact is when their is cardiac arrest the hearts stops and that cuts blood flow to the brain, the longer this goes on for the more brain damage occurs and so does the level of brain activity dramatically diminishes.

So for that said in order for Keith Augustine's theory of hallucinations to work their needs to be sufficent brain activity to account for the very high mental functions that go on in these experiences. But their is another problem here and that is patients appear to report things while being unconsciousness and very little brain activity that turn out to be accurate. These reports are colloborated by doctors and nurses. A skeptic route to take that some skeptics take is say their is no evidence for psi and survival of bodily death. This is dishonest in the extreme, because even skeptics that have read the literature may say that the evidence is very weak in their opinion but they do say that it's dishonest to say their is no evidence. I would agree with that, but i would not agree on the strength of the evidence being very weak but being very strong and overwhelming.

Monday, August 3, 2009

I was thinking perhaps, i should also come up with my own rebuttal to a skeptic from a magazine called Skeptic but decided not too based on the fact that two bloggers already have. I find their rebuttals very good, so i feel their is no need to add to that. One of the rebuttals is from Jime, who has a blog called "Subversive thinking" which covers some of the topics i write here. Another rebuttal, is from best selling author Michael Prescott he also writes on some of the topics i write about here.

Ok ok their one thing, i want to address something that did get under my skin and that is the skeptic mentioned that the cross correspondences etc, are all "GHOST STORIES". Why you ask? because anyone that has actually studied the evidence knows that these are not just ghost stories, making a false statement, such as that one is what Sebastian does to help and protect materialism. True their is a lot of anecdotes in psychical research however their has also been experiments done mediums. To water it all down to ghost stories makes a person wonder if he actually looked at the evidence. I should point out i am really surprised because this is a familiar tactic the skeptic, uses to make a person not familiar with the evidence for survival think that their is nothing there but anecdotes.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

- I would of got more involved in sports in school- Should of told that girl that i loved her- Should of not stolen- Should of saved money, put it into the bank- Should of took less sick days off in grade 10

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Phineas Gage is written to have "dramatic brain damage which resulted in dramatic personality changes". Oh boy, but this where we run into some serious problems based on recent evidence that has been uncovered.

I quote

"By late 2008 an advertisement for a previously unknown public appearance by Gage had been discovered, as well as a report of his physical and mental condition during his time in Chile, and a description of what may well have been his daily work routine there as a long-distance coach driver. This new information suggests that the seriously maladapted Gage described by Harlow may have existed for only a limited time after the accident—that Phineas eventually "figured out how to live" despite his injury,[40] and was in later life much more functional, and socially much better adapted, than has been thought".[41]

So as we see that his personality back, however their is good reasons to doubt Harlows account.

I quote

"The uncertainty of Harlow's sources for the changes he describes in Gage, combined with the fact that he waited almost twenty years (between his first and second papers) to communicate those changes, constitute one of the main puzzles of the case."

So as we still it is looking more and more less likely that he suffered dramatic personality change to the point of showing evidence for full blown mind-brain dependency. This case is often cited by full blown support for very strong mind-brain dependency. But as i have shown it's no where near supportive of it.

Brain localizations studies all of them indicate the words "associated with". Of course no dualist denies that particular brain functions will be associated with different mental phenomena. Brain localizations studies, don't tell us one way or another if mind and consciousness are separate from the brain or produced by the brain.

A side note, wordy a member on infidels forum wondered what i mean by "Survivalism". Simple, survivalism refers to the belief in the survival of the conscious self after the death of the physical body. Survivalists attempt to prove survival with the methods of science, using as evidence such things as psychic phenomena, near death experiences, out-of-body experiences, electronic voice phenomena, mediumship, reincarnation research,and various forms of photography.Survivalism is by implication a form of philosophical dualism.

I ain't going to mention who his name is but he made a comment that i will summarize here:

"He said that i am committed to my own worldview and ain't interested in what the evidence shows"

Couldn't be more wrong in that statement, i just happen to not think that the evidence points toward physicalism over any other worldview. The evidence that i have looked at from neuroscience, quantum physics, classical physics, biology, parapsycology, psychology etc.] Can be accounted for on a dualistic worldview. That doesn't mean dualism is right and i never said it is the absolute truth. There are many good reasons why i think physicalism is wrong, i have mentioned those many times on here.Anyways,

I was banned from there apparently because of plagiarism and copyright violations not being "ideologically inspired." The person then said the same thing about Adamwho which i do agree with him being ideologically inspired. The reason why is because of saying well the evidence is poor or very weak, he says the evidence is non existent. Big difference there, i remember a skeptic on skeptiko recently, saying that any skeptic who says their is no evidence is just as closed minded as saying their is very strong evidence. I totally agree on the first, the reason obviously is they don't look at the evidence in the first place. The second i disagree on because the evidence is very strong but of course it ain't a fact. But science doesn't deal with facts only the preponderance of evidence.

Adamwho mentions

It amazes me that they can only argue about philosophical stances without ever actually getting to the point: There is no evidence for their position.

But i have many times presenting tons of links, i ain't going to be there to summarize every single piece of evidence that supports psi and life after death. That would take a very long time to do. Then after that what would be the point? he would simply say the evidence is nonexistent.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Some skeptics on infidels forum has today bashed a parapsychology organizations saying that the organization will fall for any type of quackery such as this he mentions:

This dude, Paul Hellyer, who talks about "hypothetical relationships between governments and extraterrestrial intelligence" apparently is worried that "The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning" (http://www.rense.com/general68/eurdo.htm)

Yes i will say that is far out there for sure, but it's easy to take any view that does have validity such as psi and throw the baby in with the bathwater.

Here is what Adamwho says

They also can't establish guidelines of skepticism about a given claim because that would open the door to questioning their own beliefs. Many times people have asked for criteria for how they would determine what is a real psi claim and what is fraud, what is really cranky and what they would accept.... of course there is no answer... or rather they are forced to accept everything.

Just like Christians when you ask.... "how do you determine that some other religion is false?" then follow up with "how does that differ from how those people see Christianity?"

Its a simple matter of can you perform psi or not. If you can't then that is the criteria, it is based on can you or can't you until controlled conditions. False comparision between Christianity and Parapsychology because one is a religion and another is scientifically testing psi phenomena, and life after death phenomena. So there is a big difference.

Note: The Society for Scientific Exploration has added a bunch of new videos taken at their 2008 meeting.

Here are the very interesting ones

SSE 2009 Courtney Brown, Multiple Universes

Effects of Distant Group Intention on Seedling Growth

Water Memory: Carrier of Conscious Intention

Can You Still Win Yesterday’s Lottery? or Retrocausation: Is it Compatible with Known Physics?

Friday, July 24, 2009

He says on the infidels forum that their is NO EVIDENCE FOR A EXTERNAL MIND/SOUL. He then says their is variable repeatable evidence that the mind is a process of the brain. I said to him that the evidence from brain damage, drugs that effect the mind, lomotomies, alzheimers, dementia and fmri studies are open to interpretation. Even though the production is the simpliest theory that could account for these observations, it may not be true. The opposing theory that i among others have put forth is that the brain is a advanced receiver and filter of consciousness. This theory is consistent with the overwhelming scientific evidence for life after death and psi. Of course he goes ignoring this evidence, with escapes such as.

- Demeaning words such as calling all of my links supportive of psi and life after death as "cranky"- Claiming that i don't read the links i post on the forum, which i have read them so that is an out and out lie. - Saying that their is no theory for life after and psi, clearly ignorant of the fact their has been theories put forth.

And here is a very comical statement from him

"You can believe anything you want especially if it helps you get over your fear of death. But, if you sacrifice facts and evidence for comfortable faith then you have no claims to truth... You should admit as much and dedicate your time to understanding your faith rather than justifying it through false means".

Good one lol yes i admit i have had a fear of death, but of course we can't rule out the issue of rather their is life after death or not, by simply saying what that is a fear mechanism build in all humans [among all other species]. That it clouds my judgement and that i must be wrong because of that fact. I also mentioned that another member named Ashurbanipal on the forum has posted evidence from near death experiences and the Benjamin Libet experiments. What did he say?.

"He is posting speculation, feelings, intuitions, philosophical musings but not detail.... besides it is irrelevant anyway since there is no evidence for the existence of the soul... science fiction authors are able to provide lots of details too".

Adamwho mentions

You don't seem to understand, although it has been spelled out to you time and time again:

It doesn't matter what anybody believes (no matter how prominent), what matters is evidence. There is no evidence for you position and mountains of evidence against it.

My response to him was

That is the point i have trying to get to you, i have presented tons and tons of evidence from well respected scientists your excuses are

1. The evidence is too old2. Cranky sites3. Has no clue what he is talking about

I ain't saying to accept the work done on epileptics that give evidence for dualism, or Sir John Eccles, as is well known, some physical evidence that does suggest mental causation. Libet et al. suggest parallel tracking of phenomenal experience, brain events and volitional acts (Libet et al., xxi), and Velmans provides a convenient summary of evidence of mental causation from both physical and clinical sources. To weigh and consider, the same with the evidence for the cross correspondences, poltergeist phenomena, apparitions, premonitions, psi phenomena etc. May i ask you something have you ever been suspicious of some of the evidence you see of mind being an emergent property of the brain? If you haven't been the least bit suspicious then obviously you accept everything you see and hear. For me i am truly suspicious of some of the evidence for survival and psi but overall it appears to be mostly genuine.

Anyways if you like to read all of the exchanges we have had with this topic entitled " Poll for mind-body dualism {souls, spirits, or whatever you call them].